Spring in 2013 Part 2

King David

King David was one of the famous men of history. Even non religious individuals understand a lot about King David. He was known as a warrior and the writer of Psalms. He is held into great esteem by Jewish human beings and Gentile human beings. He ruled Eretz Yisrael for 40 years from ca. 1010-970 B.C. He was a great uniter of the tribes of Yisrael. He led Israeli forces to win battles and he ruled lands. His reign paved a way for his son named Solomon to build up the First Temple (where the Shekinah Glory of God was found). The Books of the Prophets and the Writings describe his life in great detail. David was the 8th and youngest son of Jesse. Jesse was from the kingly tribe of Judah. David was the direct descendant of Ruth the Moabite. David worked as a shepherd in Bethlehem. Sound familiar. The prophet Samuel allied him out of the field and anointed him without the knowledge of the then current King Saul. David returned to his sheep. King Saul wanted someone to play music for him, so the King's attendant summoned the skilled David to play for him. Saul respected David and kept him as a musician. David had courage when he used a stick and a few stones to confront the nine foot bronze Philistine giant Goliath of Gath. Many other skilled warriors had fear for 40 days. David had a single slingshot, invoked God's name, and killed the giant. Saul later took David as his commander of his troops and he had a close friendship with Jonathan or Saul's son. David won battles against the Philistines. Saul became jealous and tried to kill David by throwing a spear at him. Saul wanted to kill David on many occasions. David went into Moab to escape Saul. Moab is in modern day Jordan. David gained the support of 600 men. In Ein Gedi, David confronted Saul instead of trying to kill him. Saul broke down and told David that he would one day be King and asked David to swear that he would not destroy Saul's descendants or wipe out Saul's name. David swore to this, but it did not stop Saul from continuing to pursue him. Finally, David and his supporters joined the service of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath who entrusted David with control of the city of Ziklag. Under Achish's employ, David raided the cities of nomads who harassed the Jews and gave the spoils as gifts to the leaders of Judah to win their support for him against Saul. King Saul and Jonathan died when they were fighting the Philistines in Mt. Gilboa. David would be King of all of Israel at the age of 30 years old. He ruled over Judah for 7 years and 6 months. He had numerous wives and he had many children. He built up Jerusalem and brought the Holy Ark into Jerusalem as well. The prophet Natan said David would not build the Temple since he had been a warrior and shed blood. Natan said that David's son would build the Temple, which was King David's desire. He defeated the Moabites, the Edomites, the Ammonites, and the Arameans. King David continued the growth of the Davidic Empire from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. David allowed districts to pay taxes and the people made pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year on the holidays of Passover, Shavout, and Sukkot. King David was known for his errors. He slept with a married woman named Bathsheba (who David sent her husband Uriah the Hittite to his death in battle) after looking at her from his rooftop. When confronted by Natan the prophet, David admitted his sin. Bathsheba and David conceived a second son named Solomon. David's own son Absalom wanted to conquer his Kingdom.








King David anointed Solomon as the future King of Israel to the opposition of David's oldest son named Adonijah. David delivered a last set of instructions to his son Solomon, telling him to follow the words of God and to repay in kind specific people that had either wronged David or helped him. David then died after 40 years as king, 33 of those in Jerusalem. He was buried in the City of David. Rabbis believe that David wrote the Book of Psalms. Two archaeological finds, the Tel Dan Stele and the Mesha Stele, have direct bearing on the question of the existence of a historical David. The first of these is an Aramean victory stele (inscribed stone) discovered in 1993 at Tel Dan and dated c.850–835 BCE: it contains the phrase ביתדוד

(bytdwd), and the reading "House of David" for this "is now widely accepted." The Mesha Stele from Moab, dating from approximately the same period, may also contain the name David in line 12, where the interpretation is uncertain, and in line 31, where one destroyed letter must be supplied. King David was a poet. The Messiah is the son of David since the Messiah is from the Davidic dynasty. The Messiah Yeshua will build the real Third Temple. Even today, Jewish human beings and Christians pray for the coming of the Messiah.

The Cold War

The Cold War is another controversial part of the aftermath of World War II. Instead of having Henry Wallace's vision of peaceful coexistence in the globe, the Cold War witnessed conflicts globally (and America and the Soviet Union were almost at a stage of nuclear exchange in many instances). The roots of the Cold War came from WWII. Democracy, capitalism, communism, socialism, and other ideologies existed all over human history. Yet, by WWII, humans had a capacity in the first time in human history to kill all human life with the advent of nuclear technology. The Cold War existed when the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French colonial empire were starting to end. That was a good thing since colonial Empires in the globe are always immoral. To Franklin Delano Roosevelt's credit, he was a vigorous opponent of colonialism. He wanted nations to have independence and be free from colonial, nefarious oppression. FDR agreed with the Atlantic Charter that allowed nations to be free in formulating their own system of government excluding economic exploitation or inherit oppression. It is also important to note that in this time period, African Americans strongly advanced independence for former colonized human beings as well like Paul Robeson. Elliott Roosevelt or FDR's son said that FDR was fighting WWII to see former colonies to develop economically. Roosevelt wanted Vietnam to be independent from French colonialism as well before he died. Nationalists like Sukarno of Indonesia, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Zhou Enlai of China wanted freedom. Sukarno said that he wanted equality and social justice in the realm of nationalism and internationalism. He said that Internationalism cannot grow without the soil of nationalism. Sukarno gave the Panca Sila or the Five Principles to the word. It included nationalism, internationalism, representative government, social justice, and a belief in God. The African/Asian Bandung Conference of 1955 wanted a neutral Non-Aligned Movement as a means for human beings to advance their own interests without being manipulated by mainstream Capitalists or mainstream Communists.

When FDR died, Harry Truman took on a more reactionary approach to foreign policy affairs. Dean Acheson and Averell Harriman (a Bonesman) stirred President Harry Truman to advance recolonization and Cold War near hysteria. Humans are not cattle. Man is made in the image of God, so the nation state ought to reject feudalism and advance human liberty. The state should serve human beings and allow every male and every female to contribute their talent to the civilization of the world as a whole. Mountbatten was a British military leader who led imperialism after WWII as well. The elite used unjust wars and placed the total blame on America as a means to try to slander Americans collectively (when the new world order system and its imperialist aims came from European elitists not all Europeans). Now, Truman allowed more agitation in the Cold War. Eisenhower became more reasonable in foreign policy though since he seen war up close and personal. He lived it. Winston Churchill made his Iron Curtain speech where he talked about Communism and the Soviet Union as an evil empire bent on world domination. Churchill and other extremists exploited the rise of Mao over China and other events in Greece (like the late 1940's Greek civil war) as an excuse to talk about the Red Scare (or the silly view that all Communists collectively wanted to dominate all aspects of the world society via in a totalitarian fashion). You can easily disagree with Communism and allow nations to accept or reject Communism as an economic system if they want to in a peaceful fashion.

Far too often, some individuals ignore the great contributions of Black Americans in anti-colonialism efforts. African American human beings of numerous intellectual and ideological perspectives publicly disagreed strongly with the nefarious injustice of Western imperialism. These African Americans wanted true racial equality or true racial egalitarianism in a modern or contemporary sense. During the era of World War Two, black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier, the New York Amsterdam News, and others gave African American an outlet to view that the United Nations can terminate colonialism. Now, this was before the UN was ultimately infiltrated fully by Western elitists and others though from the Council on Foreign Relations, etc. The Courier was a Republican paper, but it was extremely anticolonial. It gave great, extensive coverage of nationalist movements around the world and it hailed the successes of colonial troops. They allowed columns from nationalist leaders to be in their work like Indian nationalist Kumar Goshal, the Chinese writer Liu Liang Mo, and the African nationalist Prince A. A. Nwafor Orizu of Nigeria. The Courier was read in colonies as well. This proved that tons of African Americans have an internationalist mindset and understood the struggle of human beings of color worldwide. These individuals wanted everything that everyone else deserves: independence, equality, and freedom. This anti-colonialist feeling was expressed from black human beings from across the political spectrum. Mainstream leaders like Walter White and A. Philip Randolph urged African Americans to support the war while seeking the achievement of racial equality at home and the abolition of colonialism abroad. The Courier also published regular columns that frequently discussed international affairs by a Pan-Africanist Marxist, George Padmore; by a black nationalist popular historian, J. A. Rogers; and by a curmudgeonly Menckenesque anticommunist, George Schuyler. The distinguished Howard University historian, Dr. Rayford W. Logan, then the most prominent African American specialist on international relations in the Courier. Many of the authors in the Courier viewed Winston Churchill as an imperialist and Tory like bigot who wants to advance white supremacy. Winston Churchill was radically in favor of the British Empire. Kwame Nkrumah wanted immediate independence for colonies in 1945. At a May 18, 1945 meeting of the American delegation, Charles W. Taussig, FDR's confidant on colonial affairs, read an impassioned statement arguing that the United States would have poor relations with the non-white peoples of the world if it refused to support independence for colonial possessions. Yet, the delegates in the early UN wanted some token efforts for the sake of paranoia about the Soviet Union. The San Francisco Conference failed to advance real independence, but allow the trustees of colonial powers to dictate alone the terms of independence. It would take years later for the Third World to be more successful for being free from imperialists. ....
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One of the parts of the Cold War was that the establishment used propaganda in advancing deception about the Cold War. The establishment is made up of the power elite in international finance, business, and professions in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Even Edith Kermit Roosevelt believed that there was a socialist conspiracy to harm the world including the U.S. Constitution (which is a red baiting ideology). Edith was a rabid anti-Communist who did not care about the real interests of the ordinary working human beings of the world. Edith was a rabid anti-communist. She even organized pro-Vietnam War rallies in Washington alongside Rev. Carl McIntyre. Her family worked for the CIA. When you look at the bigger pictures, things stand out. We see that the Morgans, the Mellons, the Rockefellers, and others having huge influence in American economic including political circles in the early 20th century. The Western establishment further controlled U.S. foreign policy, especially after FDR died. The Wall Street insiders Kennan, Acheson, Bohlen, Lovett, Harriman, and McCloy were Harry Truman's trusted advisors. Harry Truman created the CIA by signing the National Security Act of 1947. Truman allowed China to be taken by Mao's Communism when he or Truman claimed to be so anti-Communist. We know that the Truman Doctrine created the basis for American preventive actions and interventionist against any nation that was going Communist. One example was when Harry Truman was active in giving aid to the reactionary Greeks in the Greek civil war of 1947. Harry Truman did execute some legitimate things domestically (like desegregating the Armed Forces via Executive Order 9981, he wanted national health insurance, he tried to end the Haft-Tarpley Act), but on foreign policy matters, he was highly lax in opposing colonialism or imperialism. The Cold War intensified when the Communists took over Czechoslovakia in February of 1948 and the Berlin Blockade began on June 24, 1948. Mao Zedong took over China by September of 1949. NATO was ratified in the same year as well. In February 1950, Joseph McCarthy begins his Communist witch hunt. The members of the American Security Council aided Senator McCarthy. McCarthy believed that a vast Communist conspiracy threatens the entire world. Joseph McCarthy was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946. He was right that human beings have the right to peacefully and vigorously disagree with Communism from a philosophical or ideological standpoint. He is wrong to try to ruin folks' lives and human free speech rights, because of someone's views on economic or political issues. We have the freedom of expression for a reason here. Even if someone is a Communist, that person has the right to be a Communist in a free and open society. The Adams Chronology, even toned down, cited 48 instances of pressure being put on Army officials by McCarthy and Cohn, to attempt to secure preferential treatment for Schine, including regarding Schine's postings, and demands for frequent passes for Schine. These passes were not only for weekends but weeknights, even during basic training. It also showed Cohn threatening to "wreck the Army," if his petulant demands for Schine's company were not granted. In the final analysis, FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover agitated that reactionary movement as a means to eliminate more progressive voices in American society under the guise of anti-Communism. It was during the 1950's where McCarthyism violated human civil liberties. Even if you disagree with Communism, being a Communist in America is not illegal at all. When he or Joe McCarthy started to accused Generals like General George C. Marshall and military leaders (he tried to humiliate a decorated WWII General Ralph Zwicker at a hearing on February 18 in New York City) of being sympathetic to Communists, then the Eisenhower administration has a license in their mind to publicly oppose McCarthy. Ironically in response to the McCarthyite hysteria, the Eisenhower Supreme Court ironically did something about it. The high court threw out state sedition laws that were on the books in 33 states. It affirmed the right to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and that an assertion of the privilege could not be used as a confession of guilt. It cut back the Federal loyalty program, and it threw out a number of Smith Act convictions. Finally, it threw out a contempt-of-Congress conviction. This allowed the curtailing the powers of Congressional committees to conduct investigations that strayed far beyond legitimate oversight or law-making. Leading Pilgrim Society members would be founders and leaders of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Councils, Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, the Atlantic Institute of International Affairs, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, the U.S.-China Business Council, the America-China Society, the Americas Society, etc. Many of these organizations dealt with Cold War issues. Therefore, the Western establishment exploits the economic systems of capitalism and communism as a means to rule over the major functions of society in general. The CFR, since the end of World War II, has in fact been the most important foreign policy engine promoting Anglo-American corporate Imperialism around the world, utilizing laissez faire Capitalism as their weapon, and not Communism. So, we should have a fair economy, strong nation-states, and call for the government to promote and protect the general welfare of all of its citizens.

Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech increased anti-Communist paranoia. This caused many sincere nationalists to be slandered as communists. In Thailand, the Free Thai's Pridi was replaced by Philbun, who agreed with allying with the Anglo-American Cold warriors. Stalin used a blockade of Berlin; he occupied Czechoslovakia, and had a more confrontational policy in Asia. These actions were a part of the Cold War history. Many Western imperialists and many communists acted against the nationalists. That is why some falsely subscribed to the notion that any nationalist action is equivalent to communism. Many in the West failed to assist nationalists and some leaders joined with the Soviets since the West refused to assist them (like Ho Chi Minh asking America for help in building Vietnam back in 1949. They refused, so Ho Chi Minh received assistance from the Soviet Union). Even the Cold Warrior John Foster Dulles (back in the 1950's) pressured the French to continue their colonialism against Vietnam until they were defeated in Dien Bein Phu (in 1954). John Foster Dulles was an enemy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Dulles refused to recognize the People's Republic of China. Regardless if you agree with all of China's policies or not, even Richard Nixon recognized China when he was President. When Eisenhower was discussing even détente with China, Dulles refused to accept that goal. Dulles didn't even like China being allowed to participate in the Korean armistice talks. He hated the Geneva talks of 1954 with Chinese involvement. Eisenhower continued with the talks anyway. Dulles refused to shake the hand of Zhou Enlai. He or Enlai wanted peaceful coexistence with China's neighbors and Western powers. Before the Geneva Convention on Vietnam, which was back in April of 1954, Zhou made bilateral agreements with India and Burma. This caused the Five Peaceful Coexistence. These principles talked about mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, equality, and non-interference in internal affairs. The Spirit of Bandung is influenced by this initiative as advanced by Zhou, Nehru, and U Nu. Sukarno opened the Bandung Conference as being the: "...first international conference of colored peoples in the history of mankind..." The Bandung Conference led the Africans and the Asians to not worship NATO or the Cominform, but the can just be independent nations. Neither capitalism nor communism is God. Almighty God is God. The Conference wanted peaceful solutions to solve issues internationally. John Foster Dulles still rejected neutrality as obsolete, which was naïve on his part. The Non Aligned Movement was made up of African and Asian nations that wanted to be politically neutral during the Cold War. They didn't want to ally with the Anglo-American empire or the Soviet Union. This came as a fruit of the Bandung Conference indeed. The Cold War has interesting history indeed.




Adlai Stevenson is a mystery to some. He was right on some issues, but when you look at his total legacy, it is more moderate than what is suspected. He was less liberal than even then Senator John F. Kennedy on numerous issues. He was assaulted and spat upon. Of course, I don't agree with those things happening to him or any innocent man. Yet, we have to know the record about his political views. He was tepid in his criticism of Jim Crow or segregation. He refused to call for national health care, which even Harry Truman advocated. Adlai Stevenson wanted to love the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act. That law passed despite Truman's vetoes. Back in 1952, he even considered to vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was a Republican. Many intellectuals supported him and ironically he won heavily from southern and border states. He lost the 1956 election in desiring a more tolerable campaign without mudslinging. On foreign policy, he was more progressive than war hawks. He loved the United Nations and wished for more international cooperation as a means to solve international problems during the Cold War. He was right to criticize Joseph McCarthy, because Joseph followed a faux patriotism that sought to ruin the lives of American citizens because of ideological disagreements. Like JFK, Adlai had a great oratory ability in communicating words to the wider populace. JFK and Adlai once didn't like each, but later learned to deal with each other as for the good of the country. One of the positives of Adlai Stevenson was that he was not an extremist in foreign affairs. He sincerely wanted peace in the world. There are more secrets about this situation. Adlai Stevenson's father or Adlai I was a Scottish Rite Freemason who wanted international courts to govern the affairs of nations. This came many decades later in the globe whether you agree with these courts or not. Adlai Stevenson II was one founder of the CFR in Chicago too. JFK by the 1960's changed and wanted détente with the Soviet Union and Cuba. According to author Donald Gibson, he or John F. Kennedy was debating against Wall Street interests. Kennedy agreed with nationalist independent movements in the four corners of the world and he wanted to decrease U.S. involvement in Vietnam. As early as May 11, 1961, Kennedy issued the National Security Memorandum 52, which rejected an appeal from the Joints Chiefs of Staff, which wanted a deployment of U.S. ground troops in Vietnam. He didn't want U.S. troops to fight in combat missions in Vietnam like McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk wanted. The establishment hated him for it. JFK wanted economic investments in engineering, science, and technology as a means to grow the economy. He agreed with Social Security and grants for the growth of educational services in the confines of the United States of America. In other words, he wanted industry to build up the commonwealth. John F. Kennedy was an ally of Patrice Lumumba, Dag Hammarskjöld, John Kenneth Galbraith, and other progressive leaders.

President John F. Kennedy was once a strong Cold Warrior. Later, he saw the truth and became more reasonable in dealing with foreign affairs. He entered the White House in 1961 and was a young man when he entered the White House. The ill-conceived Bay of Pigs failed invasion of Cuba was in its final stages. Even when JFK started in the White House, there were extensive covert operations by the West done in Africa and Asia (as a means to defend European colonial interests). Congo gained independence by 1960 from Belgium. Yet, the British and Belgian mineral cartels wanted the division of the mineral rich Katanga province by a traitor to his own black people and warlord named Moise Tshombe. Malcolm X exposed Tshombe as a war criminal. The nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated while being held captive by Tshombe's forces. President Kennedy respected Lumumba and Lumumba was a great hero of black people and humanity in general. Lumumba was killed with the help of the CIA and Eisenhower's approval, which was one of Eisenhower's greatest Presidential errors. CIA agents were fighting in Laos in the early 1960's not only against the communist Pathet Lao, but the neutralist government as well. Even back in the 1950's, then Senator John F. Kennedy opposed colonialism publicly. JFK loved the fact that Algeria gained its independence from France. His 1957 speech about wanting Algeria to be free was denounced in London and Paris. Theodore Sorenson was his friend and adviser. Sorenson said that JFK viewed communist aggression and subversion intolerable, not communism itself. In other words, he believed that a nation has the right to embrace whatever economic system that they desire as long they don't try to pervert the economic or political system in any other nation. JFK refused to use U.S. military forces to fight in Laos, but he agreed with allying with the neutralist government of Laos. JFK was influenced by his more dovish tone by the April 1961 meeting with General Douglas MacArthur. The General told JFK that he shouldn't advance any new ground war in Asia like Vietnam. General Charles de Gaulle told President John F. Kennedy the same advice. The Non Aligned Movement was made as a means to have sovereign nation states without participation in military alliances (like NATO, SEATO, the Central Treaty Organization, etc.). John F. Kennedy was an ally of Indonesian President John F. Kennedy. JFK wanted to meet with him again in the Spring of 1964. Sukarno believed in self-determination. They met with each other back in 1961. JFK wanted to assist nations that wanted independence. Sukarno visited the White House. JFK dealt with the Vietnam War as well. John Kenneth Galbraith was Kennedy's friend and economic adviser. He visited Vietnam as an Ambassador to India. Galbraith said that United States involvement in Vietnam will end in failure and only a political settlement with Ho Chi Minh would end that situation (with help from India's Nehru). Later, Kennedy began to disengage from Vietnam. JFK wanted a technologically developing society where peace can come via strength. Diem was a dictator and a criminal, but according to sources, the North Vietnamese (and Diem) were working towards peaceful settlement. The Harriman Bundy faction wanted no such negotiations with Ho Chi Minh at all in the early 1960's. The murder of Diem ended any neutralist peace agreement. JFK opposed the coup in November 1, 1963. The architects of the coup used the Diem's unjust suppression of the religious liberty rights of the Buddhists in South Vietnam as a cover. They really wanted to stop Diem and Nhu's overtures for peace with Ho Chi Minh.
Malcolm X worked in a great deal in the Cold War era. He was a revolutionary, a nationalist, and a pan African nationalist. He was a never a liberal Democrat as implied by the late Manning Marable. The colonial movements in Africa and Asia influenced Malcolm X to advocate liberation and independence for the human beings of color in the world. He criticized capitalism as well.  Malcolm X knew that the fight against black oppressed in the U.S. was linked to the Western imperial attacks against foreign nations too. That is why he wanted the former colonial peoples of the world to unite with American blacks as a means to make America accountable for its crimes (and to allow justice, freedom, and equality to really exist in the global society). Marable is definitely wrong to assume that Malcolm X supported the Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater for President in the 1964 election. Goldwater back then was an extremely reactionary, anti-Communist libertarian who had voted against the Civil Rights Act. Malcolm X said that Goldwater was a wolf and the so called liberals were foxes in the same machine. Malcolm X in his own article on September 12, 1964 said that he didn't support LBJ or Goldwater. So, Malcolm X knew that the Republicans and the Democrats were the enemies of black rights. Only via revolutionary action can we can see rights for the homeless, the poor, and the oppressed, not just the workers. The reformists never work sufficient to engineer real change since you just have a slicker form of imperialism. We know what the Republican Party is all about. Yet, the reformist Democratic Party wants us to use pressure politics and token moves to not gain true revolutionary changes, but accommodation to the existing order mixed with a few crumbs. That is why the bipartisan war on crime was influenced by the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act that was passed under Democratic President Johnson (even before Nixon's war on crime action). In that administration, COINTELPRO or the Cold War domestic Counterintelligence Program existed. It targeted numerous social activists. In 1968, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover vowed, “The Negro youth and moderate[s] must be made to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teachings, they will be dead revolutionaries.” The FBI via COINTELPRO killed 38 Black Panthers and railroaded hundreds of others into prison. Now, there are some who want to believe in the bootstraps deception. It is the lie where victims are blamed for their own oppression and it involved the near deification of private, corporate power. It is a reactionary philosophy. Even as intelligent as Booker T. Washington was, Booker T. Washington was still dead wrong to have anti-union, pro-accommodationist views. Even rich capitalist Andrew Carnegie gave Washington and his wife a lifetime income. Even with the Democrats in power, we still have harsh conditions in the ghettos, mass unemployment, the mass incarceration of human beings, police brutality, etc. Now, the state is used as an instrument of the ruling class to suppress human rights (via crooked cops, prisons, unjust laws, etc.). Malcolm X spoke eloquently to the illusions in the Democratic Party when he said, “Either party you align yourself with is suicide because both parties are criminal. Both parties are responsible for the criminal condition that exists.” Also, the Brother Dr. Martin Luther King was definitely a revolutionary. He opposed the Vietnam War, criticized the weaknesses of capitalism, he supported anti-imperialist, revolutionary movements in the Motherland of Africa, and he wanted a redistribution of economic including political power (just like Brother Malcolm X). Ultimately, the Western establishment allowed token reforms in society as advanced by some of the middle class without radical changes to the USA. We have the right to have real equality, jobs, decent housing, and adequate schools.

Lyndon Baines Johnson became President after the evil assassination of JFK in 1963. His legacy is filled with triumphs and controversy. One of the great errors of LBJ was that he reverted from a more peaceful foreign policy into a more reactionary one. He allowed ground combat military U.S. troops in Vietnam at Da Nang in March 1965, two months after Johnson's inauguration. He aided anti-Communist regimes globally no matter how reactionary or totalitarian that they were. He was so committed to a military strategy as ending the Vietnam War that he even disagreed with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s goal of ending the war in a negotiated settlement. In this era, Malcolm X was assassinated. Malcolm X lived his entire life during the Cold War and he was a genius about international affairs. He wanted African Americans to have human rights beyond civil rights and make America accountable for its crimes against black Americans. He wanted to get allies in the Third World and other nations in the United Nations as a means to make the USA accountable for its errors. He was assassinated in February 1965 before he could get his goals accomplished. In this time period from 1963 to 1968, the anti-war movement grew in leaps and bounds. It would be only after the Tet Offensive of January 1968 that LBJ finally wanted peace negotiations with North Vietnam. He failed, because Nixon operatives caused the North Vietnamese to reject an offer until after Nixon was elected President. This was treason according to some since Nixon was acting in the scale of a diplomat. The war could of ended sooner if the Paris peace conference came about. LBJ's more positive legacy would be him signing historic civil rights and housing legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Housing Act of 1968. He signed Medicare and Medicaid. He dealt with environmental and immigration issues, which makes him one of the progressive Presidents domestically in American history. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War (and he wanted to fight the great scourge of poverty) including Edward Kennedy later on. Both men were unjustly murdered by extremists, who can't stand the truth or dissenting points of views.

Richard Nixon had a huge role in the Cold War indeed. Richard Nixon was a strange legacy. Richard Nixon was a man who suffered indignities in his life. He has a choice to follow a more righteous path or a more compromising path. On many occasions, he followed the wrong path. He was involved in the secret bombing of Cambodia. William Shawcross' "Sideshow" documents about how the illegal, secret operation caused horrendous implications. It caused the fall of Prime Minister Sihanouk to General Lon Nol. Sihanouk then supported the communist rebels called the Khmer Rouge. They disposed Lon Nol in 1975. The Khmer Rouge later executed one of the greatest extermination programs in history. The overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile was a key moment during the Nixon era. Nixon and National Security adviser Henry Kissinger were concerned with Allende's coming to power in Chile. They wanted to pressure the CIA as a means to come up with some way to stop his election. The CIA led the operation with their field officer David Phillips to give millions of dollar to an anti-Allende propaganda campaign in the Chilean election of 1970. Chile had a history of being a democratic country and Allende won the election fairly. David Rockefeller (whose family had a strong interest in Anaconda Copper) and John McCone (a board member of ITT) caused great financial ties to the economics of Chile. Both lobbied the White House. Nixon wanted the CIA Director Richard Helms to sabotage Allende. Allende came to the UN in a speech on December 1972 to expose U.S. interference in Chile. Salvador Allende was patriotic. By 1970, the president of the Chilean branch of Nelson Rockefeller's vast IBEC conglomerate, owned Chile's largest newspaper chain (El Mercurio), largest granary, and largest chicken farm, as well as the Pepsi bottling operation in Chile. Kissinger was, of course Nelson Rockefeller's former advisor, and Helms, as CIA chief, simply took orders from the Establishment. The Chilean government unanimously passed a constitutional amendment to allow Chile to nationalize all copper mines. This action was not illegal. In retaliation, American economic blockades harmed the Chilean economy. The coup began with strikes and a revolt. The establishment supported General Augusto Pinochet or a dictator to rule Chile in September 11, 1973. Operation Condor allowed reactionaries to assassinate dissident in Latin America. Richard Nixon's downfall was Watergate. He wanted to get rid of files implicating him in political corruption. So, he authorized the creation of a team of burglars in June 1971 led by ex-CIA operative E. Howard Hunt. However, their black-bag operations ran aground when part of the team was captured inside the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate building on June 17, 1972, beginning the foundering of Nixon's Presidency which ended with his force resignation on Aug. 9, 1974. One positive thing that Richard Nixon did was recognizing China and getting arms agreements with the Soviets via the SALT or the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty. SALT I was signed in July 1972. Even reactionaries opposed Nixon on that issue like Albert Wohlstetter, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Nitze (which started the modern neo conservative movement in the 1970's). Each of them created a group called the Committee on the Present Danger. These extremists falsely believed that Russia was ahead of America in the arms race. Nixon tried to execute some détente. April 17, 1975 was the date when North Korea defeats South Vietnam. The reactionaries tried to influence Gerald Ford to be more extreme on foreign policy issues. Two of the hardliners in the Ford administration was White House chief of Staff Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. During the late 1970's, the Soviet Union declined rapidly its military strength, its economic strength, and its political power. In that time period, individuals close to Rockefeller interests continued their Cold War agenda like Opus Dei William Colby, Knight of Malta William Casey, Knight of Malta Edwin Feulner, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinski (a man who worked closely to the Knights of Americares).

There can be no full understanding of the Cold War without learning about Ronald Reagan. Reagan followed the alarmist Committee on the Present Danger. Reagan said that, "We're in greater danger today than we were after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country." (Stone/Kuznick, p. 436) The Reagan administration saw one of the largest peacetime defense build ups in American history. Reagan loved supply side economics. He lowered the top income tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent. The combination of profligate military spending and large tax cuts caused annual national deficits. These deficits were unprecedented at the time. It created pressure to slash programs benefiting the poor. William Casey was a hardliner and he was once head of the CIA under Ronald Reagan. The Soviet threat was hyped up by the West during the 1980's. The Soviet Union by that time was heavily weakened. The Soviet's military and domestic services were decreasing. Folks were even criticized if they publicly expressed that truth. Even a young Robert Gates worked in CIA jobs, but he talked about the Soviets are on the march rhetoric as a means to justify huge military spending. The Reagan administration funded reactionary death squads in Latin America, because they felt that the Soviets had a huge influence in Central and Latin America. Reagan sent $5 billion in aid to El Salvador, where right-wing leader Roberto D'Aubuisson was running death squads. These squads in the employ of wealthy landowners and the U.S.-trained military were conducting its own massacres of peasants. The village of El Mozote had a huge massacre. This was when a Salvadoran army battalion systematically massacred hundreds of civilians including young children. Ray Bonner of the New York Times exposed this tragedy. Yet, some from the Wall Street Journal and other periodicals attacked his credibility. The Times was intimidated and they pulled Bonner off his Central America assignment. Reagan kept on supplying such governments in El Salvador, etc. in grants of aid. Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams still criticized Bonner as not credible. The CIA worked with Argentina's intelligence services in training rebels in Nicaragua to attack its leftist government. The leftists overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. The CIA/Argentine manufactured group was called the Contras. The Boland Amendment passed by Congress banned military aid to the Contras. Reagan still authorized extra funds to be sent to the Contras, which was hidden from Congress and the American human beings. By 1985, Reagan was selling arms secretly to Iran as a means to get help in freeing American hostages who were seized in Lebanon. The scandal exposed CIA Director Casey and NSC official Oliver North doing it as a means to fund the Contras. The Contras worked with the Latin American drug dealers and send drugs into America. The Iran Contra scandal for the most part escaped President Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush form serious political damage (instead of North, Casey, and other subordinates). Reagan invaded Grenada as a means to end the Vietnam Syndrome or the perception that America relinquished military morale and emotional strength since Vietnam. The effort was later picked up by President George H.W. Bush with his invasion of Panama in 1989 and the First Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 after which Bush declared, "we've kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all." The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was heavily influentially in ending the Cold War. Regardless if you agree with his politics or not, he was more moderate in his agenda than Stalin evidently. Gorbachev negotiated with Reagan for deals and concessions. He did so until he was deposed by a hardline coup in 1991. The pro-communist coup was, in turn, defeated by the pro-capitalistic forces under Boris Yeltsin. As American free-market ideologues descended on Russia as advisers, the Russian economy collapsed and corrupt oligarchs plundered the country's wealth through privatization in the 1990's. The Cold War allowed the intelligence communities of both sides to harm authentic nationalist movements. The so called communist threat was exaggerated as a means to strengthen Western Europe. The Cold War executed the fiction that only capitalism or communism were the only feasible economic options for any human to embrace. Even Joel Skousen, Anthony Sutton, and other scholars have documented how mainstream capitalists and mainstream communists collaborated with each other. The weakening of Russia for a time caused America to have a huge political hegemony in the 21st century.

By Timothy